Paper package



May 4, 1937. F. s. MCDONNELL 2,073,959,

PAPER PACKAGE Filed' March 4; 1935 Patented May 4, 1937 UNITED STATESPATENT rice 1 Claim.

It has been common practice heretofore to package sheets of paper onwood skids, the paper being stacked in fiat condition on the fiat top ofthe skid in a pile five or more feet in height. Such sheets of papercommonly run as large as 44" x 66" and occasionally even larger. Overthe top of the pile has been arranged a cover or platform, the wholethen being bound together as by wires passed around the assembly andwith their ends secured together. The paper as thus stacked, or beforebeing bound together, is sometimes wrapped with a waterproof wrapper.Such a package may weigh two tons or more. Whether or not a wrapper isemployed, there are certain very serious disadvantages to this method ofpackaging. After being thus packaged for some time, particularly whenthe weather has been moist for a portion of the time, a considerableamount of buckling and fluting or crinkling at the end edges and dishingof the sheets is liable to occur, the amount of this buckling, fluting,crinkling, and dishing'progressively increasing toward the top of thestack. This distortion of the sheets makes their handling at theprinting press particularly diificult and when successive printings arerequired, as in the case of color printing, this distortion of thesheets may so prevent proper registry of the paper for successiveprinting operations in the press that it cannot be used. This oftenresults in return of the paper to the manufacturer.

In accordance with the present invention, however, the advantages ofskid packaging are maintained, but at the same time the sheets are sopackaged and protected that buckling or dishing or other distortion ofthe sheets is substantially prevented. This is done by placing awaterproof wrapping sheet on the'skid, stacking a fractional part orquantity of paper thereon and wrapping the wrapping sheet about thesides and ends of the paper and turning in the wrapping sheet over thetop, then placing a wrapping sheet on the inturned edges of the firstwrapping sheet and the top of the paper enclosed by it, superposinganother quantity of paper on the second wrapping sheet, wrapping thispaper about its sides and ends and with the margins of the wrapperinturned over its upper face, and in a similar manner progressivelyplacing and wrapping successively placed portions of paper in situ untila desired quantity of paper has been placed on the skid. The top coveris then placed over the entire stack with its individually wrappedportions and the whole is bound together as by wire or other suitablebinding. The individual wrapping of the fractional amounts of the paperis much more effective in protecting the paper from the effects ofmoisture and the effects of changes of humidity in the air, and theindividual wrapping breaks up the continuity of any incipient bucklingor dishing so that these faults are not per-- mitted to becomeaccentuated from the bottom to the top as in the skid package asheretofore constructed.

The method of this invention has decided advantages over wrapping thepaper in packages before placing on the skid. Separate wrapping and thenplacing on the skid is more costly, both in labor and wrapper material,no matter what the size of the packages may be, and requires a completeenclosing with the wrappers and the fastening of the wrappers as withsealing tape,

if the packages are to be handled at all conveniently. It is especiallyunsuitable in the case of large packages because of the difiiculty ofhandling the packages onto the skid andbecause of the tendency of suchpackages to break open unless wrapped in a strongerand more expensivemanner than is necessary-in thecase of the new method herein described.By this lattermethod large packages may be built up upon the skid bylifting on the paper in such quantity or quantities as is mostconvenient and thereafter each package can be wrapped with the minimumof wrapper necessary toprotect it after it is in place without thenecessity of fastening up the wrappers on the top of any package exceptperhaps the uppermost,

or even completely covering the top, since the weight of the packagenext above will hold the wrapper on the package beneath it securely inplace and the wrapper on the bottom of the package next above willconstitute a top sheet for the protection of the package beneath.

For a more complete understanding of this invention, reference may behad to the accompanying drawing in which Figures 1, 2 and 3 aresectional isometric views showing successive stages of packaging paperin accordance with this invention.

Figure 4 is an isometric view of the completed skid package.

Figure 5 is an end elevation showing the effects of end edge crinklingand buckling in a portion of a stack of paper made according to usualprior practice of skid packaging.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective. showing the dishing of the paperin the top portion of a stack of paper built up in accordance with theprior practice for skid packaging.

Referring to the accompanying drawing, Figure 5 illustrates the end of astack of paper such as has been piled and packaged on a skid inaccordance with prior practice and has stood in packaged condition forsome time subjected to humidity changes in the surrounding atmosphere.It will be noted from this figure that the lower sheets of paper alongthe edges, and more particularly at the ends across the grain of thepaper, are somewhat crinkled and fluted, and that the amount of thisdistortion progressively increases from the bottom of the stack to thetop where the fiuting, crinkling and buckling is very pronounced. Thisdrawing has been made from a photograph of an actual stack of paperstanding in a manufacturers warehouse.

Besides this effect of crinkling and buckling of the end edges of thepaper another defect of paper packaged in this manner is illustrated inFigure 6, this also having been drawn from a photograph of the topportion of a stack of paper which has been packaged on a skid. It willbe noted that the top of this stack of paper is downwardly dished in itscenter to a very marked de gree, the amount of dishing increasingprogressively from the lower portions of the stack to the top. Verycommonly both of these faults of buckling or fiuting and dishing haveoccurred in the same stack of paper as previously packaged on a skid.

In accordance with the present invention, however, the packaging isaccomplished as shown in Figures 1 to 4. Referring to these figures, atIn is indicated the usual skid on which the paper is to be packaged. Onthe top face of this skid is placed a wrapping sheet II as shown inFigure 1. This wrapping sheet may be made of waterproof paper such, forexample, as the well known two-ply paper with an interposed protectingmedium of asphalt or the like. On this wrapper H is placed a fractionalquantity of the paper to be packaged as shown at l2. This may, forexample, be substantially one foot high. This quantity of paper is thenwrapped with the wrapper II as shown in Figure 2, the wrapper ll beingbrought up about the sides and ends of the paper l2 and its marginsbrought in over the top, as shown at l3 and I4. Next another sheet ofwrapping as IE is placed over the quantity [2 of paper previouslywrapped and a second quantity IE of paper is placed thereon insuperposed relation to the quantity l2. The wrapper I5 is then broughtup about the sides and ends of the quantity of paper IS in the samemanner that the wrapper I l was brought about the sides and ends of thequantity of paper l2 and the margins of the wrapping sheet l5 areinturned over the top of the paper IS in the same manner. Where thequantities of paper may be thoroughly enclosed and protected in thismanner no additional sealing is required, but if the wrapping sheets areinsufficiently large to provide proper coverage, sealing strips may beapplied where desirable in order to insure thorough protection. Thissuccessive packaging of fractional quantities of the paper with awaterproof wrapping is continued until the desired quantity of paper hasbeen placed and wrapped on the skid, the wrapping in each case beingperformed in situ either on the skid or on the previously wrappedportions of the paper.

When the stack has been built to the desired height, a suitable cover,such as shown at 20 in Figure 4, is placed over the top of the lastwrapped package and the whole is then bound together, as by wires 2|,each of which is passed across beneath the top of the skid as throughholes 22 in its side rails 23, brought up along opposite sides of thestack of wrapped paper and then over a board 24 on the top or cover 20where the ends of the wire are suitably secured together as by twistingas at 25. If desired a separate waterproofing covering sheet may beplaced over the top of the topmost quantity of paper provided the covertop 20 is not sufficiently tight to give the desired protection to thetop sheets of paper and, of course, if desired, the top sheet of eachindividual package may be similarly protected. Ordinarily there is nonecessity of bringing the margins of the wrapping paper together overeach quantity of paper wrapped or of the securing of them in wrappedcondition, the weight of the superposed wrapper and quantities of paperbeing amply sufficient to hold the wrapper margins in proper position.By this method of wrapping the quantitles of paper in the severalindividually wrapped bundles, the paper is much better protected fromthe effects of moisture than where it is attempted to apply a singleprotective wrapper about the whole stack of paper. Moreover, theinterposition of the wrapping sheets between the successively placedquantities of paper destroys any continuity of buckling, fluting ordishing heightwise of the stack so that if any slight buckling, flutingor dishing is produced in any one package, it does not continue into thepaper in the package above. The quantity of paper in each successivebundle is insuflicient for any such progressive increase in buckling,fluting or dishing within itself to be troublesome in later handling ofthe paper in the printing press.

Furthermore, by the avoidance of fastening of the inturned edges of eachwrapper other than by the weight of the superposed material, nosubstantial inconvenience or delay is occasioned in removing the paperfor printing purposes. Due to the size of the sheets and the amount ineach bundle, it is not possible to wrap the units individually and thenpile them up in superposed relation on a stack for the reason that theunits as thus packaged would be too heavy and at the same time too limpto permit handling in this manner, at least without great difficulty andwithout serious danger of so breaking the wrapper as to destroy itseffectiveness.

The method of packaging described is not claimed herein, but forms aportion of the subject matter of my application Serial Number 123,809,filed February 3, 1937, for Method of packaging paper, which is acontinuation in part hereof.

From the foregoing description of the invention it should be evident tothose skilled in the art that various changes and modifications might bemade without departing from its spirit or scope as defined by theappended claim.

I claim:

A package which comprises a skid, quantities of paper in superposedrelation on said skid, wrapper sheets interposed between said quantitiesand wrapped about the sides and ends of the quantity of paper nextthereabove and with their margins turned in beneath the wrapper sheetnext above and retained in position thereby, a cover over the top of theentire stack of paper and wrapper sheets, and means binding said coverand interposed paper and wrapper sheets to said skid.

FRANCIS S. MCDONNELL.

